Damaged body panels in automobiles and other motor vehicles typically are repaired by bending or hammering the metal to a shape which approximates the original contour of the body panel. A layer of body putty then is applied to the repaired surface of the panel, causing the putty to fill wrinkles and other minor imperfections in the exterior surface of the panel. After the body putty sets to a desired degree of hardness, the surface of the panel is restored to the original surface contour by removing body putty in excess of the surface contour. This putty removal, or at least the final finishing steps of removal, takes place by sanding the surface of the panel to remove high spots of putty and to provide a smooth overall surface finish. This sanded finish must blend with the surface on adjacent undamaged portions of the panel, and also must duplicate the original shape or contour of the panel, in order to provide a professional repaired surface that, after being painted, is visually indistinguishable from the original undamaged surface.
Body panels having only flat surfaces or rounded contours of relatively large radius, but lacking relatively sharp contours or curvilinear features, can be finished using power disk sanders or the like, as the repaired and original portions of the flat or large-radius curved surfaces are more readily blended together. However, relatively linear or elongated surface contours (as found, for example, on door panels) generally must be sanded by hand to blend the sanded finish with the original contour of the panel. This manual sanding usually requires a back-and-forth sanding movement paralleling the linear contour, and for the best result the manual sander or other repair tool should move in parallel alignment with the longitudinal extent of the body contour.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,050,308 discloses a contour sander maintained in linear alignment with a body panel by a tool guide while moving the contour sander back and forth to reproduce the desired contour in the panel. That apparatus is useful in many applications, particularly on relatively long panels such as vehicle doors or fenders allowing sufficient room to attach the tool guide with the suction cups provided for that purpose. However, there are instances where the contoured surface of the panel being repaired has a relatively short extent which will not easily accommodate the attachment of the tool guide, or where the worker doesn't believe a relatively small damaged area will justify the time spent in aligning and attaching the tool guide. In situations such as those, many body workers will instead turn to conventional hand-held devices for holding or supporting the sandpaper. If those devices do not support the sandpaper with a contour that closely matches the body contour being sanded, the resulting finished work is less likely to match the contour of the original undamaged panel.
Hand-held devices for supporting pieces of sandpaper are known in the art. However, those devices generally are useful only for finishing flat surfaces or contours of relatively large radius, and the art sanding devices are not widely accepted for finishing vehicle body repairs where a variety of body contours are encountered in different makes and models of vehicles.